Technologies That Will Enhance Your Small Business Processes

When harnessed correctly, technology and your IT strategy provides your small or medium-sized business with the opportunity to greatly increase internal efficiencies, improve productivity and optimize profitability. 

Technology can help you optimize your existing processes, enhance them with slight tweaks, or even revamp your business processes completely to make your business more efficient and profitable.

Are you looking for ways to enhance your business processes through the strategic use of technology? We’ve listed five technologies that can improve the processes of your Ontario-based business.

In-house technologies are expensive and complex. To ensure your company runs seamlessly you have to be prepared for hardware issues, connectivity problems and faulty equipment. Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which your team accesses software through the internet, and the service provider is responsible for the maintenance of the program.

There’s a reason around 85 percent of small companies have already invested in Software-as-a-Service products and solutions, according to BMC. 

SaaS may present slightly higher costs than on-premise hardware in the long run, but the immediate and long-term benefits are huge. You’ll avoid expensive initial fees, you’ll benefit from implementation right away and you’ll have flexibility to scale your software up and down depending on the current needs of your team. 

Do you need a way to automate your team’s file sharing and submission processes, moving away from the arduous process of sharing files manually with one another or even passing over physical paperwork?

Cloud computing is a shared computing infrastructure or service that keeps all of your data in one place. Instead of storing files locally on physical hardware, cloud-based software stores your data on remote servers, meaning users can access those files and systems through any device as long as they have access to the internet. 

Cloud software and infrastructure give your employees the tools they need to do their job, no matter where they are working from. In fact, your entire team will have an easy way to access, edit and share documents with one another. 

This is particularly important in a business environment where remote work and hybrid work models are becoming increasingly popular. 

Manual and recurring tasks are time-consuming and expensive, but most of all they take your time away from the core tasks that truly help you drive business growth. Thankfully, there are now technologies that help you automate these tasks.

Business process automation is the use of technologies to automate the tasks that prevent you from working on the things that drive real value. That could include anything from automating your finance and accounting processes, creating sales workflows, using technologies that delegate tasks within your internal team, marketing automation tools and so much more. 

Have you ever had one of those days where the phone connections are just terrible? You try to speak with your internal team or external customers, but your phone lines just keep jittering or, even worse, disconnecting. 

With unified communications (UC), this is no longer a problem. Unified communications is a way of centralizing your entire communication strategy through VoIP technology. Unify your instant messaging, VoIP phone service, video conferencing software, emails, voicemail and SMS all on one easy-to-use solution.

Your employees will have streamlined access to communication channels that enhances collaboration and allows them to work from wherever they are located. 

Customers are increasingly going digital with mobile or “smart” payments to pay for services, such as Google Wallet, Coin and Apple Pay. Gone are the days when you need to carry physical money around or keep paper trails of transactions and invoices. 

There’s no reason you can’t make that work for business transactions. There are numerous software solutions out there to help you automate invoices, send digital receipts, track sales history and allow your customers to pay through smart payments. 

Interested in learning more ways in which technology can enhance your business processes, helping your organization to save time and money? Get in touch with OT Group today. Our team of IT support specialists would love to help.